Refugees' garden bears rich crop of comfort

Tending to a garden as they did in their native lands has helped some refugees heal from traumas and adapt to living in the U.S.

July 24, 2007|By John Biemer, Tribune staff reporter

Hadzo Dreljo leaned one hand on a wooden cane and swept the other over a patch of robust vegetables. In a life beset by turmoil, the small, peaceful plot of earth behind a Glen Ellyn church is one place the Bosnian refugee is at home.

For the last six years, dozens of refugees from war-torn corners of the globe have tended a half-acre garden behind Glenfield Baptist Church as part of an unconventional therapy program started by Wheaton-based World Relief DuPage. The intent is to help them adjust to a new life, while healing their bodies and souls.

Many of the refugees -- Bosnians, Meskhetian Turks and Somali Bantus -- were once farmers or came from rural areas where they had gardens but now live in small apartments with no yard. It is just one of many difficulties, along with learning English and navigating a fast-paced society, in adjusting to life in the United States.

Some are making the transition while dealing with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression from the ravages of war, including rape, torture, dislocation and years of living in refugee camps.

"It's a very untraditional way to do counseling; it's not the Western concept of sitting in an office," said Issam Smeir, a mental health clinician for World Relief, a Christian humanitarian relief organization. "This is a more ... natural way. People are outside; as they dig on the land, they start talking about their home and what happened. It's more natural, rather than trying to pull out stories from the past."

The garden can be a reminder of what they lost, but also a source of comfort because it's one part of their current lives where they can relax, knowing they have the skills to succeed, therapists said. In turn, that experience has renewed their confidence.

Bosnian Muslims and Serbs, at odds during the war in their homeland, even began to befriend each other as they helped each other's garden grow.

Getting started was an emotional experience, said Gordana Kaludjerovic, a World Relief counselor. The refugees' motivation had been stultified by years of frustration, so they had to be prodded to dig their hands into the soil. Before long, they warmed to the task.

"When they saw just real land, a piece of the land, and how they can start with a garden, they started to cry," Kaludjerovic said. "It was amazing. They wanted to stay long hours."

World Relief counselors began to move group therapy sessions, typically held at round tables, outdoors to the garden. Since then, it also has become much more: a source of pride and even a multigenerational social gathering place, where adults sip coffee while grandchildren play on the grass.

In the fall, refugees harvest vegetables and pickle them for winter, as they had in their homeland, even though American supermarkets stock fresh vegetables year-round. The Bosnians have asked relatives who have traveled back to their homelands to bring back seeds of a yellow bean they prefer over American green beans.

"They were so happy because that was something special they could not get here," Kaludjerovic said.

The latest refugees to take part are Meskhetian Turks, native to the nation of Georgia but forced to relocate to other parts of the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. Shaira Khamidova, 40, grew up in Uzbekistan but fled to Krasnodar, a Russian city near the Black Sea, because of ethnic strife. Two years ago, they came to the United States to escape further persecution.

Khamidova now lives in an apartment in Wheaton. This summer, she began gardening next to the Bosnians. When asked if it reminds her of gardens back home, she smiled warmly and said, "Da, yes, yes."

"It is very hard, sometimes I cry because I don't understand [English]," said Khamidova, a former geography teacher who now works in a factory that makes magnets. "All [our] life, we work in garden and we don't buy [vegetables] in Russia in stores."

Soon, the Turks will be reaping what they sow and benefiting in more ways than one, counselors hope.

"The garden really means so much to us, and we were a part of the garden in our previous life," Tifa Besirevic, 56, who came from a small Bosnian town, said through a translator. "[They] pushed us and forced us to go out and look at this now. Nobody could tell us to stop now.

"I feel very good here and now, when I am here, I can really see everything growing and I can enjoy it and I can breathe better," she said.